Institutions like the Peebles Guildry Corporation and the Peebles Callants, with their succession of distinguished Deans of Guild and Chief Callants, continue to flourish in the 1980s. They still meet to enjoy a 'wee drappie o't' and like to have their evening of song and sentiment. Perhaps the local minstrels - and there are many, as in former years! - will add to their repertoire of local ballads which currently includes the tale of the 'Dalathie and North Street Gangs', by including songs about that day in April 1989, when HRH The Duchess of York 'dropped in' for tea with twenty-two-month-old Rhianna Scott and her parents at 50A Rosetta Road; or tell about the occasion when Cornet Andrew Williamson and the Beltane Queen of Peebles (Sarah McGrath), resplendent in her regalia, were presented to HM The Queen and HRH The Duke of Edinburgh on the occasion of the royal visit to Peebles on 1 July 1988; or about the visit by HRH The Princess Royal to Cuddyside in September 1990 to open 'Provost Walker Court'.

The Peeblesshire News in 1969 paid tribute to the life of a very popular mill-worker, James (Sykes) Miller, who had joined the Royal Scots early in the First World War when he was under the age of eighteen. He was recognised as a fine cricketer and notable footballer, having played with Hearts and as a trialist for Scotland, but, above all, Sykes Miller was described as a man who 'loved to joke, laugh and no trouble ever daunted him'.

These fine qualities of courage, humour and undaunted spirit sum up the characteristics of generations of Peeblean men and women who, in their day, have been the 'architects and soul of the town'.

Footnotes:

1

Peeblesshire News, January - February 1951

2

Marwick, Arthur, British Society since 1945 (The Pelican Social History